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Hurston & Hughes

Zora Hurston and Langston Hughes both offer their own very different and unique perspective of post slavery life and black culture. I believe the differences can be
attributed to the fact that each were born and raised on opposite sides of the Mason-Dixon line.
Zora Hurston was born in the deep south where racial discrimination and
prejudice was still very much alive, perpetrating poverty and misery for blacks.
Zora refused to see the negative side of life in her community, instead she focused
on the rich heritage of black culture. I found the story “The Eatonville Anthology”
to be very funny with it’s cast of hometown characters . Zora was able to find humor in the people and everyday activities in her town.
In contrast, the story “How it Feels to Be Colored” let’s the reader know
that blacks were just like everybody else , with their share of joy and sorrow and all
of the other emotions in-between, that they to, are , all to human.
Langston Hughes by comparison was born in Missouri, the grand-son of a militant
abolitionist and great-nephew of the first black man to hold a political office.
Hughes’s poetry is a testament to the metaphoric rebirth of the black man and women,
no longer were they going to be repressed and cast-aside .Instead he writings would show
the world that the black culture was very proud, and had contributed to building and shaping this great country, it wasn’t just for the white society.
Hurston and Hughes were great friends and even collaborated on a play together, not
one of their most successful endeavors. With the end of the Harlem Renaissance, both
continued to write, with Hughes having the most success. Was this because Hughes
was a better writer? Or because of the simplistic and sometimes unfavorable way
Zora Hurston portrayed blacks, in eyes of black culture. You must know that the majority of their readers were wealthy white people.
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